Zohran Mamdani is, quite literally, everywhere.

The 34-year-old New York state assemblyman, who in recent months has ascended from relative political anonymity to become the presumptive winner of New York City’s November mayoral race, has already graced the covers of Time, New York, Vanity Fair, and The Nation, among other publications. He’s sparred with newscasters on CNN and Fox News, riffed with Stephen Colbert, and bantered like his life depended on it with the hosts of The View.

Mamdani’s ubiquity didn’t start with print pages or broadcast interviews. Much of that conventional media exposure, and Mamdani’s growing celebrity, is a collective byproduct of one single element of his mayoral campaign: a really, really good social strategy. One of Mamdani’s first viral videos, a 2024 supercut of short conversations between the assemblyman and New York–based Trump voters, laid the groundwork for a subsequent mayoral campaign built on clever, conversational clips. See: Very Cold Mamdani, emerging from a polar plunge in the Atlantic Ocean with a vow to freeze rent on rent-stabilized apartments. See also: Sneakers Mamdani, walking the length of Manhattan to advocate for accessible politicians; Citi Bike Mamdani, responding to a bystander’s howl of “Communist” before pedaling off as cameras roll; or Red Rose Mamdani, spoofing The Bachelor while wooing New Yorkers with promises of an equitable future. Yes, the #ZaddyZohran TikTok hashtag is nearly as prolific as the candidate who inspires it.

But as Mamdani acknowledged during a recent sit-down at his campaign’s spartan Manhattan headquarters, his outsized ubiquity also has its downsides: There’s the ire of President Trump, who has denounced Mamdani as “a 100% Communist lunatic,” threatened to arrest him, and, should the front-runner topple Andrew Cuomo in November, deploy the National Guard to New York City. Then there’s the risk of violence against Mamdani or his campaign staff; it’s a concern that increased markedly following the recent assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk, and, for Mamdani, means “I’m never alone now.”

But for someone as everywhere as Mamdani, hunkering down in the secure confines of an office can only last so long. Forty-five minutes, to be exact, before our interview concludes and Mamdani (security detail in tow) gamely joins WIRED’s photographers on a bustling Manhattan street, posing inside a yellow cab and walking to and fro on the sidewalk. It would be an understatement to say that passersby took note. They did take selfies—at least five in fewer than 10 minutes. They also took campaign materials, seemingly so inspired by a mere glimpse of Zaddy Zohran that they were compelled to join his 80,000-strong army of volunteers. And, in typical New York fashion, they did all of this with no semblance of personal shame, screaming Mamdani’s name from the open windows of office towers and cars; hooting at him from across the street and down the block.

It remains to be seen whether Mamdani as mayor can satisfy these starstruck locals, along with his thousands of volunteers and hundreds of thousands of presumed voters—not to mention the many millions more following along online. For now, Mamdani is embracing the life of a newly minted internet darling. After one last wave has been proffered, to a particularly loud fan shouting from a window across the street, the candidate and his team duck back inside their nondescript office building. Up the elevators and, presumably, on to the next interview.

One of the founding directors of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure provider Nscale has exited the company, in the wake of it securing $1.1bn in Series B funding, Computer Weekly has learned.  

According to a Companies House filing dated 8 October 2025, Nathan Townsend has stepped down as a director of Nscale, which he co-founded with company CEO Josh Payne in May 2024.

The company was created through a spin-off from cryptocurrency mining and renewably powered infrastructure provider Arkon Energy, which Townsend originally founded with Payne. It is unclear if Arkon Energy still exists, as the company’s website is no longer accessible on the internet, but Townsend’s LinkedIn Page states that he remains the company’s chief operating officer.  

Companies House also confirmed that another director, investment banker Barry Kupferberg, departed the company on 8 October 2025.

Meanwhile, the names of two other directors have now been added to the company’s roster, according to Companies House, including Øyvind Eriksen, who is the president and CEO of Aker ASA, the Norwegian industrial investment company that led Nscale’s recent funding round.

In a statement to Computer Weekly, a spokesperson for Nscale said the recent reshuffle of the company’s board of directors is connected to the Series B funding the company closed in late September 2025. As reported by Computer Weekly at the time, Nscale claimed the $1.1bn investment it received through its Series B funding round is the largest ever secured in the UK and Europe.

“In connection with this closing, Nscale implemented some governance changes, including modifications in the directors appointed to the board,” a company spokesperson told Computer Weekly. “We believe our new board composition will set the group up for success as Nscale continues to grow.”

Within days of the company switching up its board of directors, it announced – on 15 October 2025 – that it had signed an “expanded deal” with software giant Microsoft to supply 200,000 NVIDIA GB300 graphics processing units (GPUs) to stand-up hyperscale AI infrastructures across Europe and the US.

This is in addition to another deal announced in September 2025 that committed the two companies to work together to create the UK’s largest AI supercomputer at Nscale’s site in Loughton, Essex, which will also play host to Microsoft Azure services.

The delivery of the October 2025 deal, billed by Nscale as one of the largest AI infrastructure contracts ever signed, will be done in collaboration with Dell Technologies, the company confirmed.

“This agreement confirms Nscale’s place as a partner of choice for the world’s most important technology leaders,” said Payne in a statement announcing the deal. “Few companies are equipped to deliver GPU deployments at this scale, but we have the experience and have built the global pipeline to do so.

“The pace with which we have expanded our capacity demonstrates both our readiness and our commitment to efficiency, sustainability and providing our customers with the most advanced technology available. It’s a clear signal that Nscale is setting a new standard for how the next wave of AI infrastructure will be delivered.”

On Saturday, crowds gathered in cities across the United States to protest President Donald Trump and his administration. Organizers of the No Kings rallies claim that more than 7 million people attended in all, across 2,700 cities in the Unites States and beyond. The gatherings provided a clear picture not only of how widespread the resistance to the Trump administration has become, but also the diversity of the coalition driving it. Not to mention the signs.

“Today, millions of Americans stood together to reject authoritarianism and remind the world that our democracy belongs to the people, not to one man’s ambition,” said Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, cofounders of the nonprofit Indivisible—which took the lead on organizing the rallies—in a statement.

Ahead of Saturday, House speaker Mike Johnson described the planned gatherings as the “hate America rally” and warned that the crowds would be filled with “antifa types.” In reality, the protests were uniformly peaceful, with inflatable costumes appearing to outnumber conservative bogeymen by a wide margin. And Trump’s response to No Kings? An AI-generated video of himself, wearing a crown, piloting a fighter jet and dropping massive amounts of excrement on protesting US citizens below.

In the real world, the crowds walked their routes without issue. Below are snapshots of No Kings from cities across the US, a look at a protest movement that is increasingly motivated and able to mobilize.

Alaska

California